Math methods help prepare teacher candidates to enter the K–12 school system and introduce teacher candidates to the constructivist and social-cultural learning theories. Additionally, math methods provide the structure to support teacher candidates with best practices and strong pedagogical strategies to support math acquisition in the K–12 setting.
Published in Chapter:
Promoting Conceptual Understanding Through Authentic Mathematics Instruction in Virtual Environments: More Than a Game
Elizabeth Allison (Western Governors University, USA),
Megan Rzyski (Western Governors University, USA),
Jen Wallender (Western Governors University, USA),
Carol PeQueen (Western Governors University, USA),
Kristie Remaly (Western Governors University, USA),
M. Amanda Kain (Western Governors University, USA), and
Adam Hiebel (Western Governors University, USA)
Copyright: © 2024
|Pages: 28
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-5939-3.ch007
Abstract
Delivering effective online instruction to preservice teacher candidates is important to ensure teachers are prepared for K–12 classrooms. Formal education has been reimagined several times throughout history, with both K–12 and higher education settings seeing significant changes in recent decades. Additionally, elementary teachers and preservice teacher candidates often view mathematics as only facts and procedures for memorization—a belief that infiltrates their instructional practices. Colleges that prepare teacher candidates must respond to this misconception. This chapter explores strategies one online university used to help preservice teacher candidates maximize student success by implementing live webinars called Put It into Practice (PiiP). During these sessions, preservice teachers explore online tools that can be used in the K–12 classroom to conceptualize math concepts. The webinars challenge preservice teachers to analyze how to teach math in today's classroom, while modeling the key prerequisite of establishing a safe psychological environment conducive to learning.